Clueless in Gaza

Lunch at Armageddon

Richard Lay’s Lunch at
Armageddon is a candidate for the most implausible us new drama seen in New
York. The plot concerns young Brad (J. Garrett Glaser), who is on a
group expedition to retrace the steps of Jesus before he enters the priesthood.
Brad escapes his travel group to find a beer at a cafe overlooking Armageddon
and meets a young Palestinian woman, Leila (Erin Kate Howard), who
claims to be studying Islamic history. The two hit it off, and a whirlwind
romance is launched. That same day at the cafe, they meet an aging female
Hollywood mogul, Poppy (Arlene Love), who is in Israel to make
arrangements for an on-location epic about Armageddon. She is assisted by her
right-hand man, Peter (Pierre O’Farrell). Poppy takes an instant liking
to the new young couple and decides that with their historical knowledge of
Armageddon, they should have the job of writing the screenplay for her epic.
How can the pair refuse? Poppy has offered these unknowns five million dollars
to deliver the script before director Martin Scorsese backs out of the project!
Would Martin Scorsese agree to directing this epic without a script in the
first place? Is Poppy just wacko and the entire project a figment of her
imagination? Nope, turns out it’s all true and the young pair work through
their cultural differences with love on their side as they complete a script for
Poppy.

Along the way, ludicrous plot points are revealed on top of
a general disregard for how an actual Hollywood producer would negotiate
through the making of a 150-million-dollar film. Why it’s “just like falling
off a log” to be a producer, as one character states. To muddy up the story a
bit more, Poppy is seen in flashback scenes with her late husband Sam (Steve
Kasparazak), as his dying wish he makes her promise him that she will make
an epic about Armageddon. These scenes could have been dropped entirely, as the
information in them was given elsewhere in the script. There was also a
ridiculous attempt to hide Poppy’s age by dressing her in oversized hats and
staging her with her back to the audience.

Glaser and Howard as the young lovers turned in respectable
performances and even handled the most outlandish scenes with dignity.
O’Farrell and Kasprazak gave honest and believable performances in spite of an
absolutely deadly performance by Arlene Love as Poppy. Love’s every entrance
into the scene slowed the pace, lacked any sense of a woman of Hollywood power,
and failed to make an otherwise colorful character come to life. Though it may
not have mattered if even Elizabeth Taylor had been cast as Poppy, for the play
was so beyond salvaging that the most ideal actors and director could not have
made it work without sending Lay back to the drawing board. Lay has a play in
the two young people from diverse backgrounds meeting and falling in love in an
unlikely place, but the intrusion of the impossible Hollywood story destroys
what might have been a very good idea.

It wasn’t until the final scene
that costume designer Ashley Luff dressed Poppy in an outfit befitting
her stature. Until then she was dressed in a variety of

shorts and t-shirts, looking like she was on a camping
trip in Yosemite rather than a guest at the best hotel. Otherwise, the
rest of the cast was appropriately dressed throughout. Alan Kanevsky’s
lighting was basic, but made clean distinction between separate scenes sharing
the same space. No one was

given credit for the set, which
was only functional, but the black traveler was drawn for the final scene to
reveal a conference room. In this simple way, a stark contrast between
the worlds of New York and Israel was created to good effect.